The invention relates to an apparatus for manipulating rolls of convoluted webs, especially paper rolls of the type used in many paper processing plants for the making of pads, for assembling stacks of sheets and the like. More particularly, the invention relates to the manipulation of so-called expired rolls of paper or the like, namely rolls which must be removed from an unwinding station to provide room for fresh rolls.
Webs of paper which are processed in many paper processing plants are supplied in the form of huge rolls wherein a core is surrounded by a large number of convolutions. A huge roll is suspended at an unwinding station and is rotated to pay out the web. When the roll has expired, i.e., when its diameter has been reduced to a predetermined minimum value, such expired roll must be severed from the length of paid out (already unwound) web and the trailing end of the paid out length of the web must be spliced to the leader of a fresh web so as to ensure that the processing machine will receive a continuous web for conversion into sheets, panels or the like or that the intervals of idleness will be as short as possible.
Removal of expired rolls from unwinding stations in or next to paper processing and other web processing machines presents many problems, especially when the rolls are bulky and heavy. As a rule, much of the work which is involved in removing an expired roll from the unwinding station and in replacing it with a fresh roll is still performed by hand. Additional problems arise in connection with the manipulation of expired rolls wherein remnants of the webs project from the cores upon severing of expired rolls from the lengths of paid out web material. Such remnants can interfere with proper manipulation of expired rolls.